They were now outside; chaos reigned. Gunshots were louder than all the screaming. People’s remains trapped under ruins: an arm here, a foot there, a bunch scattered in the debris.

  “Woah, looks like they’ve brought someone special. A few guns can’t do all this mess.”

  “Yeah, maybe they finally got someone who can actually fight without guns,” he said excitedly, basically jumping all around the place, unable to contain his excitement.

  “Before we go find that dude who can actually fight—or girl, I don't know—we got some cleaning up to do. Again.”

  A whole army of men, all wearing black tactical gear, closed in on them from each side of the road.

  “Aight, bet. How much time? One who finishes last has to pay the winner… uhhhh… something, I guess? Let’s start killing alreadyyy.”

  “I take your offer. Let’s go.”

  They talked in sync. “Three, two, one, goo—”

  “Wait!” A man in a lab coat, blue round glasses, middle-aged and skinny, emerged from the sea of black, megaphone in hand.

  “Could we talk? Reasonably?”

  “That’s a first,” Ashwin was puzzled at this new interaction.

  “Hmmmm… you come and kill people, wreck buildings, and ask to talk reasonably,” Sharkz was thinking, his hand under his chin.

  “We’re really sorry for the damage we caused. We can pay everything ba—”

  “How about my favorite sushi man? Can you buy his corpse and bring him back to life?”

  “No, we can’t bu—”

  “But what? I don’t want a new sushi man. I want MY sushi man. The one who would give me raw fish for free.”

  “We can sti—”

  “Shut up. I don’t want your replacements or whatever. Hurry up and talk.”

  The scientist was nervous, glancing at the tail. Why does everyone look at my tail? Sweat poured down his face.

  “We’ve been studying species similar to you around the globe with characteristics common to the apex predators on the planet. We’ve deemed this species as ‘hybrids’ due to their similarities to the homo sapiens but with distinct characteristics such as ears, tails, teeth, hair, etc. Studying them from afar was easy, using drones, robots and hidden cameras. They were pretty civilized, but we quickly found out that they don’t like human interaction. We’ve sent out 50 scientists, each attempt with more countermeasures than the last, but none of them came back alive. We lost many great minds during these attempts an—”

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  “Hurry up! I don’t got all day.” He cut him off, visibly bored.

  “Alright, I’ll get straight to the point. We’ve seen videos of you on the internet, and you seem—civilized enough to reason and get some information out of you.”

  “So to scout me out… you attacked this city, killed civilians, kids, innocent lives. And this isn't even the first time! I can tell that you lost many of your ‘great minds’ because this plan is fucking stupid. I’ve already given you information. Check squad leader n 67’s body cam. Ashwin, what do you think we should do now?”

  “I say we kil—”

  “Don’t let them talk! Do your damn job and shoot!”

  The scientist ordered his men to shoot, but they didn't answer.

  Half of his men were lying with holes the size of fists in their heads and chests, sizzling, smoke of burning flesh and the scent in the air. The other half was frozen. They were caught in a huge wave made out of ice.

  “Hey presto!” He punched the ice, breaking it into little fragments. The pieces of the men lay scattered across the road.

  The middle aged man yelled into his radio : “Snipers ! Snipers !”

  10 bullets were shot from the rooftops but Sharkz didn’t seem to see them, neither did Ashwin. They all hit Sharkz from the back, leaving holes on his hoodie bouncing off his skin.

  “You guys made hypersonic snipers ? Just for me ? Awww, I feel so special.”

  “Fuck, they only fire a single bullet, they were our last resort.” The scientist fell to his knees in defeat, his fate evident.

  Sharkz gathered the snipers In a blink and tossed them all to the ground. “Splotch tie them up for me real quick, I wanna try something.”

  The Black goo latched around the snipers, tying them to each other. One of the snipers yelped : “Sir ! Do something! Call for the special unit !” The scientist stood still, ignoring the shooters call for help.

  “Hmmmmm something's up.” Ashwin was thinking. “Why would he let all of the men die and let the snipers die? He’s a scientist, he's smart, he would have shot all the weapons at the same time the moment he saw that they were going to lose to try and damage you at least a bit. They’re trying to buy ti-” He was interrupted by Sharkz’ shenanigans.

  “BANG !” He shouted, pointing his hand to the squad in a gun shape. The men were all pulverised into a pool of blood.

  “What’re you doing ??” Ashwin yelled at Sharkz

  “I wanted to try using a gun. I made an ice gun hehe.”

  “Don’t you understand the dudes trying to buy time”

  “Here it comes” The scientist lays down on his stomach, flat on the ground.”

  Right above the scientist something flew, barely visible to the human eye. Sharkz dodged it by a hair but Ashwin got hit full on.

  It was a hybrid. Short white spiky hair, blue tail and fin, spiky teeth. He was topless but wore a sort of robe, made out of animal hide.

  Ashwin got hit in the stomach at speeds a human couldn’t even fathom reaching. He went through six buildings before hitting the ground a few times and finally made a stop at the wall of the seventh building, leaving a hole in the wall, laying motionless in a pile of bricks.

  He coughed up blood. His dark green hoodie completely gone. “Youch. That’s gonna leave a mark.” His abdomen was completely red, the center of impact revealing his flesh.

  “The human’s gone now. Let’s have a fight worthy of our superior species.”

  “Shut up you couldn’t even kill him. And you're not superior, the dude literally bought you ! Uhhhh I think ?”

  “Stupid human man, he said kill you for unlimited fish.”

  “Some of you guys are really primitive, gosh.”